As long as you stick to ext2/3, don't run ~sparc and use a 2.4 kernel (sparc-sources) you're good to go.
Sparc is a supported architecture, so when a GLSA comes out about any security bug, you're covered just as well as x86.
Just steer away from java, blackdown isn't that supportive with it._________________Gustavo Zacarias
Gentoo/SPARC monkey

but with enterprise support. Availablility is a huge issue and dependability.

How ever, assuming that this is the case for anything enterprise level.

What about support, licensing and so forth.

May companies that run at a Enterprise level worry about being sued for the opensource application they run and they want garrenteed resources to fix the problem. Public forums are not considered support.

Just my 2 cents, I work for a fortune 50 company and it has been a 2 year battle just to get RedHat and it looks like it will not be in place untill late this summer.

From what I see about gentoo, and I am a supporter of it, it would never pass the scrutany of Major corporations.

My definiation of "Enterprise Level" means that we have Money riding on its availablility and if there is a problem it MUST be resolved right away and most people that I work with don't have the skills to troubleshoot problems that could arise C code.

Just my thoughts on this topic, please feel free to correct someone my statements if I am wrong. I feel Gentoo will be the next generation of Linux Distrubations.

Depends on what you mean when you say "Enterprise". This is a frequently abused term. Look at 5th Horseman. He won't get any Gentoo through the door,, regardless of architecture. He'll get Red Hat, and a hefty support contract, and only then just barely. His company has lawyers who think they'll be sued for using Free software, and engineers who don't understand their own platform.

Back in the Real World...

If your definition of "Enterprise" is more along the lines of "This box needs to be very reliable", then you're fine. If you already run Gentoo/x86, you'll do well with Gentoo/sparc. Just follow the guidelines given above and in the installation handbook, and you'll be fine. Ask here or on #gentoo-sparc on freenode if you have specific concerns.

Sparc64 is a fully supported architecture with Gentoo, and should be considered to be equally reliable to gentoo/x86 or any other fully supported platform.

In my experience on x86 and sparc platforms, Gentoo is
high maintenance.

Assuming you have an interest in keeping the machines up to date
with the latest glsa's or want to run emerge -u world periodically,
you will need to reserve time for troubleshooting builds
that stall, services that break, and applications that break,
when updates are applied. Multiply that across a bunch of
Sun machines running different services and I'd guess you
would be more busy with this task than with say BSD
or Debian.

Gentoo has excellent package management system, but the QA isn't
quite where it should be for server room functions.

That is partly intentional, as the users want new releases as soon
as possible and the philsophy is that the users accept some degree
of "self serve QA and regression testing" in exchange for early
access to packages.

I would not deploy Gentoo, in its current form and QA qualities,
in a production server. Gentoo is more tuned for people who
require the latest and greatest, and don't mind spending some
time (sometimes a lot) tinkering with things, making bug reports,
researching issues on the forums, etc. to maintain and upgrade
their systems.

According to the output from glsa-check, emerge will some day
have a way to look up glsa related updates and apply only
those. That is one improvement that would save time when
it is ready.

Again, stick to the 2.4 kernel, and dont be too paranoid about being totally up to date. Check which updates fix security stuff, and apply them. Leave some manpage update to zlib by the wayside...

A solid OS on solid hardware... you cant go wrong

By the way, dont use the word "enterprise" too much .. unless you are CTO of ibm, haliburton, or some simmilar conglomerate. People on these forums will (rightly) laugh you out of the water for it. Use the term "business" which is likely far more accurate to what you intended to say._________________-Tim Smith

I think it was stated above, but stick with the 2.4 kernel. As a server side running apache, mail, stuff like that I would say its pretty safe. I wouldn't be upgrading the same day stuff comes out. As it can tend to break stuff. I am using it as a desktop as well, that definetly takes some monkeying around with to get it to run good.